The Wheels Come Off

Trump just announced a 25 percent tariff on all imported cars beginning this coming Wednesday.

Well, there goes my hope of buying an Audi this year! 

Now, I kid, as I am not in the market for an Audi, but that is going to make motor vehicles - already too expensive because of the trend toward large SUVs and all of the unnecessary technology the automakers are putting into motor vehicles, be it due to customer demand or government regulations -almost completely out of reach for the average consumer.

So that Volkswagen Golf GTI you've been looking at, already overpriced at $32,445, will set you back about 40 grand instead!  And I don't even want to think of how much a Golf R will cost.

Oh yeah, for the record, a base Volkswagen Golf costs the U.S. equivalent of $26,291 and would cost about the same with Trump's tariff as a Golf GTI without the tariff . . . if you could buy one in These States.

Trump appears to be counting on American consumers opting more for American-made motor vehicles, including those made at factories of foreign companies such as Volkswagen (great, more Altases on the road!), Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai . . . but with GM, Ford, and the Stellantis brand group that used to be called Chrysler reaping the most benefits.  So what if the Big Three own plants in Canada and have domestic-branded vehicles brought over from north of the 49th parallel - long considered domestic vehicles - and these tariffs will make their Canadian-made vehicles more expensive as well?  But they will reap the benefits of the tariffs  - they'll pass the cost onto the consumer.

That's assuming anyone can afford Detroit's wares.  A Pennsylvania Chrysler Group dealership in the Philadelphia suburb of Glen Mills told a TV reporter that a Ram pickup (not a Ford Ram pickup, as Michael Cohen has called it - Ford makes the F-150), which normally would go for $80,000, will go for roughly $100,000 under Trump's tariff.  A lot of people are trying to fathom the ludicrousness of offering a pickup truck for sale at $100,000.  I'm trying to imagine why anyone would pay even 80 grand for a pickup truck.  Hello?  It's a pickup truck!  It's meant to carry bales of hay and half a ton of loose topsoil!  What's up with the leather seating and walnut accents in that damn interior?

I'm also trying to imagine why anyone would want to buy a Tesla Cybertruck.

Trump's tariff will not only make new motor vehicles impossible for the people who voted for him to buy, it may make it very difficult for some foreign automakers to survive in the U.S. market and maybe even some domestic automakers to survive period.  Trump is trying to force the cost of the tariff onto the automakers by not increasing manufacturer's suggested retail prices (MSRPs),c which would cripple their ability to make a profit from sales.  The tariff may even have the unintended consequence of putting Tesla out of business.

This is just a hunch . . . but the 2025 New York Auto Show, which opens in a few weeks, may be the last New York auto show I ever go to.